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The learning objectives for the course are for learners to develop competence in information systems (IS) assurance by learning to:
The strategy for achieving the learning objectives is to learn by doing, i.e., by experiencing the work of IS auditors. This strategy is designed to enable learners to develop the ability to recognize organizational situations for which IS assurance would help achieve organizational goals and to participate in the planning, development, and implementation of assurance services in highly automated contexts. |
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schedule shows a general plan for topics and activities by week. Readings
and due dates for assignments appear on the pages linked in the agenda
column. Pages not yet linked will be available before they're needed.
Deviations from this schedule may be necessary. |
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| Week |
Class
day |
In
class |
Before
the next class |
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| 01 |
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| 02 |
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| 03 |
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| 04 |
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| 05 |
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Eticket audit program:
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| 06 |
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| 07 |
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| 08 |
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| 09 |
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| 10 |
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| 11 |
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| 12 |
Interview auditors from PriceWaterhouseCoopers on SOX compliance and the practice of IT audit |
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| 13 |
Continuous auditing
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PC-Now
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| 14 |
PC-Now
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| 15 |
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Prepare for final exam
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| 16 |
Complete the final exam by answering a question set | [contents] |
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The course is offered as collaborative learning in which learners collaborate in seeking knowledge and principles and applying them for solving problems. In this approach to learning, learners recognize pertinent knowledge not because the teacher identifies it beforehand but because learners realize they need it to make progress solving a problem. Between class sessions, conversations can continue electronically on the discussion board in WebCT. Learner-directed learning, rather than teacher-directed learning, is appropriate for this course because of the problem-solving demands that learners will encounter in their roles as business, accounting, or assurance professionals. Because of the short half-life of knowledge about information systems (IS) assurance, it is more important to learn how to solve problems rather than to learn what you might need to know right now about IS assurance. For example, as they reengineer business processes, organizations are discarding transaction-based audit trails on which almost all of assurance has been based. This change in the environment means that assurors must develop assurance approaches that rely on internal control rather than on testing individual transactions. Achieving this is a new problem for assurors, which Acct 8630 helps people learn to solve. The best research on how people learn shows that people learn better when they work through alternative solutions than when they merely absorb a completed solution. Confronting the impasse of a failed alternative prompts one to recognize why that alternative is deficient, which is essential practice for evaluating alternatives later on the job, when the teacher is no longer available. Collaborative learning on-line makes it easy for self-forming teams to bring a variety of talents to bear on problems, a practice called swarming. Because they have different talents and perspectives, team members together can solve problems that they could not solve alone. A problem-solving focus fosters learning by promoting learners' consideration of more information and more alternatives for solving problems and creating a community-of-practice in the class that promotes learner participation rather than passive acquisition of knowledge. A reason for learners
assuming the responsibility for their learning is so that when the facilitator
is no longer available, e.g., after the course is over, learners have
become capable of determining what they need to learn and how to go about
it to solve the next new problem. When you work for and with others, they
will be delighted with your ability to learn to do the things that help
achieve organizational goals. When you work for yourself, you will be
delighted with your ability to learn the things that will help you achieve
your goals. This is what "lifelong learning" means. This course
can be a gateway to your lifelong learning. Team collaboration. Some teams work well from the very beginning, which enables them to be very productive. Most teams, however, discover that they wish that their internal processes enabled them to be more productive. If this describes your team, consider these learning phases as a way to organize your team efforts. Participating in discussion: In class sessions and on the discussion board Participate in discussions in class, in team sessions, and on the discussion board by (1) entering comments and questions and (2) commenting on the work of others. Seek out resources (web and non-web) that pertain to class topics and share them as appropriate during discussions (on the discussion board and in class and team sessions). Participation quality will be evaluated according to these criteria. Participate in a substantive way. Participate in class and team discussions by commenting on others' work for the purpose of helping to improve it. This kind of participation may be uncomfortable at first if prior courses have not featured much of this kind of participation. Imagine yourself in a work setting in which your organization's survival (and hence your continued employment there) depends on your team improving its products or services substantially. No improvement will be possible if everyone is bashful and refrains from commenting on the work. Intel's name for the process of vetting ideas by challenging them is constructive confrontation (in the section Do you aggressively cultivate new ideas?) In this process, poking holes and finding weaknesses is a way of testing ideas while they are still ideas. Thus, when you are asked to defend an idea, the challenge is not an indication that the idea is a poor one but that the questioner is bestowing a gift--an attitude of honesty about the idea for the purpose of exploring and testing it. This linguistic ritual may seem threatening at first, but it can be a very powerful way to learn. (For more about linguistic matters, see Tannen, The power of talk: Who gets heard and why: pdf) A human tendency is to refrain from pointing out flaws (it is important to identify flaws because a flaw is unlikely to be remedied if it is never identified) on the grounds that doing so might hurt someone's feelings. But we need not be personal in our comments about real or perceived flaws. Therefore, you are just as responsible for discussing others' ideas in class as you are for presenting your own. This is a substantial commitment for people not accustomed to behaving this way, but learning to do so is likely to enable you to be much more successful, in this class and in your career. Here are some productive ways we can pose comments:
This kind of critiquing is not a matter of things not being right in their current state but "it is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest...Criticism is a matter of flushing out that thought and trying to change it: to show that things are not as self-evident as one believed, to see that what is accepted as self-evident will no longer be accepted as such" (Foucault, M.1988, Practicing criticism (trans. A. Sheridan et al.). In L. D. Kritzman, ed., Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984, 154-155. New York: Routledge). Participate
in discussion board postings. The discussion board is a way to
continue discussions between class sessions. Discussion board postings
could be directly related to readings/assignments or generally related
to the area of IS assurance. The discussion board is a way for you to
ask questions related to readings/assignments between class sessions.
Preparing and responding to discussion board postings are ways to develop
competence in IS assurance. For example, you might point the class to
a Wall Street Journal article (or articles in other sources in
the business press) relevant to the course and explain why it's relevant.
You can respond to other's posts, asking questions about the things that
puzzled you and clarifying things that seemed unclear. Sometimes, articles
in the business press explain enough about a business context to make
it amenable to our identifying risks in the situation and thinking through
how to provide needed IS assurance. |
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[The items in the following paragraph are available through this link to the 2005-06 GSU Graduate Catalog at the paragraph number cited.] Acct 8630 is a required course in the MPA Accounting Systems Specialization (7250) and an elective course in other MPA specializations and other master's programs in the Robinson College of Business. Students at other universities may take the course as transient students (7140). Non degree-seeking students may enroll as postgraduate students (7130) if they have an undergraduate degree from the Robinson College of Business or as non degree students (7130) if they have a business undergraduate degree or its equivalent from an accredited university. The Robinson College of Business follows a self-managed application process (7110.20) with these application date deadlines (7110.10).
If you need more experience with desktop software such as Microsoft Office Access or Excel, Web browsers, or HTML editors, Georgia State offers eTraining, Web-based training for PC software, available from anywhere anytime and downloadable to your machine. If you want to take the course but are not a Georgia State student, contact a master's admissions coordinator in the Robinson College of Business Office of Graduate Admissions and Student Services.
To facilitate learning
to do IT audit work, all class sessions are held in a room with computers
for everyone. For publication of student work, the course relies on your
GSU web space
in your student
lockerbox on your H: drive. For a discussion board and exam administration,
the course relies on the uLearn
learning management system. For directions for publishing your work on
your H: drive, see this set from
the first day's class session; for directions for using uLearn, see uLearn
Technical Help. Email to you from the facilitator will be sent to
your uLearn email address. If you want to read your mail at a different
address, set mail forwarding from the uLearn account. Consistent with
Georgia State policy,
it is your responsibility to provide your own computer and Internet access. Beginning with the
first class session, you need to use campus computers, uLearn, and your
GSU-provided H: drive. If you need assistance getting access to any of
these, seek help from the staff in the main computer lab (Library South
109) or at the GSU Help Desk 404 413-4357. Virtual
conferencing: Elluminate vClass Georgia State has
a virtual conferencing system that you may use for team meetings: Elluminate
vClass. To use it, request
a practice room. Documentation for moderators is available here.
The owner of the practice room must login as a moderator. Elluminate has
some hardware and software requirements.
For learning to moderate a session select "Getting started with ElluminateLive"
on the training
page. If you need technical assistance, contact Elluminate Tech support
1-866-388-8674 (option 2, student moderators or participants). By appointment,
you can conference with the facilitator in her virtual
office. [contents]
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For links to information
on professional and career matters, e.g., professional certification and
affiliation relevant to the practice of information systems assurance
and career-related aspects, see professional/career
matters. |